Best song does not always speak to the ages

Philippa Hawker

This year's Oscars MC, Seth MacFarlane, has already set a record. He's running the show, and he's in the running for an Academy Award. Previously, there have been co-hosts with a nomination on the night (including Paul Hogan, who was up for best original screenplay for Crocodile Dundee in 1987), but Family Guy creator MacFarlane is the first solo host to be a contender.

And his nomination is in an unexpected category: best original song. He co-wrote a musical number for his off-colour Peter Pan comedy Ted, a song for Norah Jones called Everybody Needs a Best Friend.

You might think that some of the greatest songwriters from the golden age of Broadway and Hollywood musicals would be among past winners. Yet Cole Porter didn't cut the Academy mustard: four nominations, no Oscar. And George Gershwin has only one nomination, They Can't Take That Away From Me from Shall We Dance, which was beaten by Sweet Leilani, a number from Waikiki Wedding. Is this the greatest Oscar scandal of them all?

Best-song winner, but not one for one of his best songs ... Bruce Springsteen. Photo: Getty Images

Over the years, Academy voters haven't tended to reflect contemporary tastes or musical developments. The Oscar winners of the 1960s include Chim Chim Cheree, Born Free, Talk to the Animals, The Windmills of Your Mind and Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head. The world shifted a little, however, when Isaac Hayes took out the Oscar in 1972 with the Theme from 'Shaft' – and he performed a killer version at the ceremony.

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In the 1990s, Disney animations owned the original song category. Alan Menken, with four wins – for Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, Pocahontas and The Little Mermaid – dominates the decade. He has the best strike rate, four from 14, of all original song winners: Randy Newman has two from 20.

Bruce Springsteen has an Oscar (Streets of Philadelphia from Philadelphia), as do Carly Simon (Let The River Run from Working Girl) and Bob Dylan (Things Have Changed from Wonder Boys). None of them is what you'd really call a classic.

Never too far from the best-song nomination ... Randy Newman.

This century, a few contemporary numbers have cut through. Lose Yourself (Eminem's song from 8 Mile) was a strong winner, but it's more of a stretch to make the case for It's Hard Out There For a Pimp (from Hustle & Flow).

And there have also been Oscar winners with a disarming, dream-come-true element to them: an utterly gobsmacked Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová won in 2008 for Falling Slowly, from the low-budget Irish movie Once in which they also starred. Her acceptance speech was cut off when the orchestra began playing as soon as she stepped up to the mike: Host Jon Stewart brought her back to say a few words, and she spoke about their song being "written from a perspective of hope. And hope at the end of the day connects us all". It was a moment to soften the heart of the most jaded Oscar-watcher.

Who knows – maybe there'll be a similar experience in store for us this year.

The nominated songs of 2013

Before My Time from Chasing Ice (performed by Scarlett Johansson and Joshua Bell)